FAO TrainSim-Adam Playing with the BR Class 20 today (having not played with it for a while), I noticed some issues that could do with being addressed: Brakes don’t fully release all the time. They often release leaving 0.2 of pressure in the Brake Cylinder (BC Dial). It’s not much, but it can have a significant effect on being able to maintain speed when running the locomotive in idle. Amps drop out or surge upwards. There is no little arrow above the throttle position indicator on the HUD when the throttle is in positions 1-9. Makes it appear you can’t increase the throttle further when you actually can. Visibility when driving the BR Class 20 nose first is appalling (due to the design of the locomotive, rather than a DTG design flaw). When operating the BR Class 20 on its own or with coaches like on WSR, I think it would be better if the train went rear first rather than nose first. This feels safer and more practical. Thanks for reading
That's interesting. It seems to be a core problem that slipped in at some point. A similar thing happens for the GP9 and GP38-2 on OSD and the C40-8W on SPG. Their brake cylinders never drop below 0.4 psi, usually staying at 0.5 psi.
0.5 psi literally will not do anything, the brakes won't even do anything till about 3-4psi. 0.5psi is so minuscule anyway even if they did it wouldn't make the blind bit of difference. The amps dropping out or surging is perfectly normal, its just a field divert or field reversion taking place.
The brakes holding 0.2 does have an effect. If the BC is 0.0 you can maintain 10mph by just having the throttle in the ‘On’ position whilst on level ground. When the BC is at 0.2 the locomotive can’t hold 10mph. I spent quite a bit of time assessing it before raising the issue - so it does have an impact. Granted, it’s only a small impact, but the BC should be returning to 0.0 and should not get stuck at 0.2 when released.
It probably isn't even that, its probably a slight change in curve resistance or something, it literally is set to not have any effect until 5 psi.
you could attempt overcharging the brake. this is done by holding the brake handle in the "release/overcharge" setting, take care however to not apply any train brakes for five minutes after overcharging the brakes, as this would make the braking significantly overpowered and would require overcharging them again. using the loco brake after overcharging is completely fine. "Release is a bit counter intuitively named position while running with air brakes... while it does technically release the brakes it should NEVER be used for doing that, to release the brakes the handle should only be placed in the running position. The release position is used to overcharge the brakes which is to say increases the brake pipe pressure above the standard 72.5psi (up to between 76-78psi). The purpose of this is to cause any distributors and hence brakes which may have gotten stuck on to release (hopefully this never happens). On returning the handle to the running position the overcharge is bled off very slow taking about 2-3 minutes to do so, this has to be done slowly otherwise the distributors will apply the brake. Misuse of the release position can result in the brakes dragging. If an application is made while an overcharge is in effect the control reservoirs will seal at the pressure they were applied at, meaning that distributor will not release the brake until the brake pipe pressure is above the control reservoir pressure (so if you apply the brake at an overcharge of 75psi, you will have to create above 75psi to release the brake fully again). Since the running position will only create up to 72.5psi you would need to use the release position to release the brakes. If you suspect dragging brakes the correct procedure is to hold the brake handle in the release position for around 30-60 seconds, before letting the handle back to the running position. Once there the brake handle must be left there for 2-3 minutes, if you do apply the brake you will need to do the whole procedure all over again. On Vacuum brakes the position will still technically overcharge the air brake on the loco, but it doesn't matter as the distributor isn't working on the air system so the above does not apply. In vacuum operation the position will speed up the vacuum exhauster's allowing you to release the trains vacuum brakes quicker." Credit for the Bolded text goes to DominusEdwardius